Hamas, Israel reach new truce

Published June 24th, 2012 - 09:46 GMT

Hamas and Israel observed a fragile truce declared last night. Hamas said Saturday evening it was ready to observe a truce with Israel

Hamas and Israel observed a fragile truce declared last night. Hamas said Saturday evening it was ready to observe a truce with Israel after another day of violence that left three Palestinians dead and one Israeli wounded.

Hamas and "the Palestinian resistance factions will respect the truce if the the occupation (forces) do the same, and that's what we told our Egyptian brothers who have asked us to cease fire" said senior Hamas official Ayman Taha.

"The Egyptians have asked the occupation to stop its aggression and informed us that they were ready to do so. We told them that we will answer quiet with quiet," he added.

Taha said Hamas had "refused to set a deadline for the implementation of the truce," but a source close to the Palestinian Islamist movement told AFP that "as a result of intense efforts by Egypt, the truce entered into force at midnight (2100 GMT) ".

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, had previously threatened to "respond to aggression"

On Saturday, three Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes, including a 6 year old boy killed near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said. The child's father was seriously injured and one civilian also hit in the attack, witnesses said.

The Israeli army denied having conducted an operation in this area.

A little later, a Palestinian, 25, was killed by an Israeli drone attack near Jabaliya in northern Gaza Strip, according to local emergency services.

Late afternoon, a third Palestinian was killed and a dozen other were injured during a new Israeli strike on a suburb of Gaza City, according to Palestinian medical sources. The powerful explosion damaged several apartments of a building in al-Nasser Street, one of the major arteries leading to the center of Gaza City.

The Israeli army confirmed it had launched an air strike in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave but gave no other details. Israeli aircraft launched at least seven strikes on the Palestinian enclave Saturday. All in all, 15 Palestinians were injured in these raids, local medical sources said.

Meanwhile, an Israeli was wounded by rocket shrapnel in Sderot, an Israeli town near the Palestinian enclave and a frequent target of armed Palestinian organizations based Gaza, according to the army and police.